| Show HUMUS OUR GREATEST SOIL NEED by thomas thomaa L martin agronomist brigham young university the lands that are being farmed in the west are comparatively now lands yet there are evidences that they are producing at at r such a low rate that one wonders if they are not as old as the lands of europe actually they are not old but their characteristic looseness has permitted the humus to be used up quickly and the farming system has been such that men have failed ailed to replenish the humus supply its as it should have been done recently wind and water erosion hag bas been called to our attention it has ln been vigorous lg orous even een la in these western states vast dust storms have hae been common during the last several years the dust has not come from the deserts alone but from the soils that have been farmed all about us these SOIL af because of a lack of humus and therefore low ow water holding capacity and crop producing power have dried cultivation in the spring has further loosened the soli soil the winds in turn have picked up this material mate ilal and the little humus that was present in the surface lias has been carried away each s succeeding cac ng y boar ar this s con condition oil has taken thin sheets of surface soil with its humus 8 away and now the soils do indeed act as though they were old and worn out A worn out soil holds little moisture big clods are turned up when they aio are plowed plant diseases nie fire very common and the demand is yearly early increased for commercial fertilizers if one looks about it will be seen scon that many of the soils are in just such conditions this need not be the amount of rainfall the limited amount of leaching the vast supplies of plant food elements that are in our country rock lock the rock lock from which the solid soils are aie derived indicate that crop producing power should bo be ing high h it can le be it if the humus ply la Is replenished rotation practiced and land cultivation reduced to a minimum so serious Is this problem in germany that the germans have hae concentrated all their energies upon replenishing the humus supply the german slogan is german nutrition for the german people from the german soils their soil scientists are working on this problem commercial fertilizers tili have been used a great deal yet the solla soils are not producing as they should investigators say there is something lacking in tho the farming system somewhere and observations indicate that it is a tick of humus 1 in the alie soil it I 1 is s found that hait humus and common commercial aal fertilizers foit ihm must go hand in hand band there hide is a nationwide wide effort being made to bring this pr olbern to t lie attention of all the people I 1 hurt at all if we in the lie west would do the same thing we e should always remember that a depleted soil always means a depleted citizenship humus will do more than any one sigale thing in soil fertility practices to bring the soils out of this depleted stage |
